The Relationship Between Motivation and Employee's Performance

The realities of competing in today’s rapidly changing environment require flexible leadership styles, motivation, empowerment, creativity and innovation to drive maximum performance. The core of leadership today is the art of mobilising and putting together the intellectual resources of all employees (i.e. skills, knowledge and experience) of the organisation to maximise productivity. Most organisations are experiencing the challenges of understanding that leadership styles do have a significant impact on performance and employee motivation. This study investigates the relationship between these concepts (i.e. leadership, motivation and performance) and the impact they have on employees and the organisation. A quantitative research project was conducted within the De Beers Corporate Headquarters through an online survey. A random sample of employees at various job levels and within various disciplines was selected. A total of 310 questionnaires were distributed and a response rate of 79% was achieved. The main findings of the research discovered that a significant relationship exists between the style of leadership demonstrated in a particular situation and the impact it has on the motivation and performance levels of employees in an organisation. Recommendations are made regarding improvements and changes that should be made should the study be repeated in the future. The recommendations include: putting in place measures to recognise and reward the successful implementation of new ideas made by employees; consider providing employees with flexibility in terms of structuring their remuneration packages and negotiating flexible working arrangements; putting in place performance systems that recognise and reward team performance adequately and consistently; putting in place measures to monitor the evaluation and tracking of poor performers within De Beers and regularly benchmark the reward system with ii world-class